I regularly hear from people who tell me, “I see spirits all the time.” They aren’t crazy; they aren’t hallucinating; they aren’t even all that special, or at least they don’t want to be. Most of them just see spirits. All the time.
It’s disconcerting for them; and for those of us who don’t see spirits, but want to respond with love and grace and power.
Some people want a scientific explanation. Some think it’s all part of the occult. Others think it’s a blessing from God. Many people who see spirits wish they couldn’t. Others who don’t wish they could. Many seers have told me that those who wish they could see are the ones who are crazy.
Before I started Seers See Ministries, I was a volunteer youth pastor at a new church. My wife and I were still coming to grips with the idea that some children can see spirits.
I’ll never forget the teenager who came up to me at church and basically said, “I see spirits. I see demons and angels and other things. And I see them all the time. At school following kids. Besides the streets. Outside of homes. Outside of churches. At the mall. I see spirits all the time.”
I asked if she saw one now. She nodded and said, “It’s right behind you. A tall one. It’s evil. It’s following you.”
I felt my heart dropped. Immediately the Lord brought to mind a sin in my life that I hadn’t brought to the Father. Eventually, I made the connection to sin and spiritual assignments. I talk about this a lot in my book, Peace in Your House.
I was sort of freaking out that a teenager was coming to me describing seeing spirits and that one was right behind me.
I wanted to tell her it’s not real and not to worry and that there aren’t really monsters and I also wanted to turn around and command the thing to go away in the name of Jesus.
But I didn’t. Instead, I said, “You are not crazy.” I saw as relief flooded her face. She was new to the youth group and I didn’t know her, and she took a huge risk in telling me what she saw. Would she be rejected? Would she be ignored? Would she be told she’s crazy? Hallucinating? Wrong? It’s right there: she could see it, but no one else could.
But actually lots of people can see these things: more people that you would believe. Like this young girl, most have learned to keep their mouths shut lest they be ridiculed, or accused of being demonic, or crazy, or ignored.
Love, Grace and Power
Frankly, I didn’t know if she could really see in the spirit realm or if she was attention seeking. While I believed her, there’s always the chance someone is making it up.
Either way, my response was and will always be the with love of Jesus, the grace from the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
I asked her to continue to alert me when she saw spirits at church, so we could deal with them. (Later I repented of my sin, brought faith to this area of my life, and began achieving the mind of Christ in this area of weakness.)
A few days later, I went to my pastor and mentioned what she told me. I wanted some guidance.
He replied, “Oh, she’s a seer.”
I exclaimed, “There’s a word for that?”
He said, “Yes, of course. It’s in the Bible, you know.” He suggested I talk with some other seers in the church.
I was flabbergasted that he was so nonchalant and already knew some people could see spirits.
“Why don’t we talk about this?” I meant why don’t our pastors mention this in front of the congregation on Sunday morning or in the various classes we taught.
He laughed. “People already think we’re weird.”
I understood what he meant. In our growing church, we believed that God still heals people miraculously, that God still speaks to people, and that when the Apostle Paul said, “you should prophecy”[ref]1 Corinthians 14:1[/ref] and “do not forbid speaking in tongues” [ref]1 Corinthians 14:39[/ref], he meant it.
Among other churches in our community, these teachings in the Bible weren’t just unbiblical, they were dangerous and maybe satanic. We knew some Christian groups had sent “spies”, and were spreading distortions and openly teaching against the idea that God still heals, that God still speaks, and God still fills people, let alone that it was okay to practice these things.[ref]1 Timothy 4:15[/ref]
So imagine if they heard that we taught some people can see spirits. “People already think we’re weird” can quickly become, “People think we must be stopped.” It’s not that the issue is people seeing spirits, but it’s a supernatural worldview that accepts there is a spiritual realm that interacts with the physical, and some people see the interaction. Many want to “fix” those who have a supernatural worldview.
After all, the reasoning goes, people who think they can see spirits need a pill or maybe a hospital or are in the occult.
Wrong. People who can see spirits need love. They need acceptance. They need instruction.
Recently my friend Gerry and I were invited to a meeting of psychics and mediums. Almost all of these spiritually sensitive people told how Christians despised them, hated them, ostracized them, and in some cases had threatened them. They definitely were not welcome in church.
These psychics and mediums are lovely people whom Christians have really wounded. They have become aware that many spiritually sensitive people are similarly lost and need help.
So these psychics and mediums are starting a support group to begin training them. I wondered why Christians – who believe in a man who was killed for claiming to be God and had rose again, thus confirming his claim- have abdicated instruction in the supernatural to psychics and mediums. Why are these people, who don’t know the love of the Father, showing more love than Christians, who do?
God loves these people. Shouldn’t Christians?
When it comes to human beings, “Christians” and “Hate” don’t belong in the same sentence. Jesus died for all people. Even the ones who announce, “I can see spirits.”
Christians have been given the love of Jesus, the grace of the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate God’s heart to the least, the last, and the lost. Maybe we should act like it.